The Anti-Party: How Sober Morning Events Became the Most In-Demand Ticket in Miami w/ Lucy of Coffee & Chill

Welcome to the Makeshift Happen podcast. I'm your host, Samantha Daly, entrepreneur, life coach, and your no BS bestie, here to bring you all things mindset, manifestation, and personal development. This podcast is designed to help you expand your mind and uplevel your life. So turn the volume up and roll the windows down if you're coming along for the ride. Let's go make shit happen.

Welcome to the show, Lucy! I'm so excited to have you here. Welcome to Makeshift Happen.

So happy to be here, thank you.

It's so fun that we get to record in person in Miami. Also, by the way, if you guys are seeing this on YouTube, we have a fun setup, different than my usual home office setup. So if you want to watch on video, I definitely highly suggest. So one of my friends Lucy is here with me today. She is the co-founder of Coffee and Chill, which is one of the fastest growing wellness communities in Miami. You guys now have chapters all over the country in other cities like Austin, New York, San Diego, Vegas, and more. You've personally hosted over 40,000 guests. You are very well versed and experienced in this world of wellness and event planning. So I'm so excited to pick your brain today on the show because I know so many people in my audience are wanting to build communities, and whether that's a part of their service-based business, part of their coaching business, or in addition to that, supplemental. But I really feel like with the rise of AI, the in-person element of bringing communities together in person is becoming even more desired, and it's something that people are really, really looking for. So I'm excited to talk to you about all of that because I know people are craving this so, so much. So welcome to the show.

Thank you. What an intro.

Yes. Okay. And I'm so glad we finally get to do this because I've known Lucy for a little while. And actually, funny story about how I first heard about Lucy is through people who were almost like copycatting your brand and building a, a different version of it in Fort Lauderdale. So yours is funny, was known in Miami. I obviously live in Fort Lauderdale, and so the first time I ever heard about Coffee and Chill was from these people who were basically copycatting your event, and they were like, we're gonna go to Coffee and Chill, do you wanna come? And I didn't end up going because the tickets sold out so fast. And that's when I first was like, okay, what is this event? Like, everyone's talking about it, it sells out in 2 seconds. And then I realized what it was, and then we ended up meeting serendipitously at that event here in Miami, like in person. And so it all kind of started there. But yeah, it's been really fun to see you grow, and just like the irony of like meeting you through someone who was really trying to build a very similar brand and concept to what you had built. So I want to talk about community building and this idea that, you know, people say entrepreneurs build what they wish existed a lot of times. So what made you so passionate passionate about community building?

Great question. It started for me with loneliness in Miami. I moved here 5 years ago, 2021, post-pandemic. I had this grand vision of like, I'm gonna make friends instantly and like get back into community at a very isolating, like disconnected COVID. So I was really looking forward to that, and I was wildly mistaken at how challenging that would actually be. And I think at first I blamed it on the city. I blamed it on Miami. I thought, this place isn't for me. Why did I move here? I need to leave. Like, I'm not gonna find my people here. And I just blamed it on the city itself. And in reality, I think over time I started to realize like what makes it feel like home is actually the people you're with. And I didn't have anyone really supporting me. I didn't have a friend group. I didn't know anyone when I moved here. And it wasn't until I started making friends that I started enjoying my life here. And it became very clear like human connection isn't just like a nice to have. Like I wanted friends, but I don't think in the beginning I really realized I need friends to have mental and physical well-being and to feel happy. And supported. So when I realized that, I was like, okay, I need to really start making this a priority. And when I started making friends and going to events, I felt my whole reality shift, and that's what made me want to start hosting my own events.

Any tips for the girls who are entrepreneur, who are wellness-focused, who maybe have moved to a new city or have a similar belief about the place that they live, where it's like maybe like the Miami stories, like this is a party city potentially, or you know, it's just like people don't have the same values as me, or they're not, you know, trying to build something. We have all these blocks. I think when you become become a category of one type person. Not everyone around you is like you truly, so it is a little bit more challenging to get on the same level with people and make friends. What was helpful for you in that journey when you decided, I'm gonna really make this a priority to stretch myself out of my comfort zone and try to make friends?

TikTok. Honestly, I, I posted a lot of the journey on TikTok of like moving to Miami, what I hated about Miami, all the things I was going to, trying to do to meet people. I got stood up on first friend dates in Miami, and like I shared a lot of that journey and that vulnerability on TikTok. But I think if you put yourself out there and you say, I'm in a new city and this is what I— who I am, what I like, what my core values are, the kinds of people I want to hang out with. You can meet a lot of people through social media and like just DMing girls and like finding your people that way. So I, I wouldn't be afraid to put yourself out there. Also going to as many events as humanly possible. I don't think that like the online communities have the same impact that the in-person ones do. So actually go to things in your city. You're not going to love all of them, but you'll find one or two that are amazing, and you'll find a couple friends, and those friends will introduce you friends, and then all of a sudden you make, you know, your full friend group. So now I think there's more communities than ever before. There's more events to go to. So even in small cities, there's usually something— a walk club, a run club, a yoga community. There's so many different things now for every little niche, which is amazing.

Yeah.

And if you can find your crew through like an in-person community like that, I think you're, you're setting yourself up for success.

I feel like so many young people are meeting wellness focused entrepreneurial friends through run clubs. Like, I see that as being a huge thing. And then for the girls, the Pilates kind of thing I think is blowing up right now, like Pilates events. And it's like Pilates and this, whether you mix it with like— now we're seeing it with like faith and the Bible, or like literally anything. People are like combining their interests to make events around what they care about, and then it brings you into connection with other people who care about similar things, right?

And it's such a good filter for like, even at Coffee and Chill, it's like, if you're getting up at 10:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning and you're jumping in an ice bath, like, that's a a certain kind of person. You likely, you know, maybe you were at the club the night before, but most people probably aren't. They did their morning run, they're up early, they want to make the most of their day. So it's a good filter for like, okay, these might be the right people for me to connect with.

What did building Coffee and Chill give you, like, on a personal level, building that community?

Oh, so many things. I feel like from a business standpoint, it's just brought me, you know, so many opportunities. I've really learned so much from being able to work with incredible partners. It's brought me a ton of confidence on personal level, I think it's got me really plugged into the city here. Just local businesses, other entrepreneurs, like, you're like known in the city of Miami.

Like, people know you.

It's, it's still surreal when I like just, I go on a walk in the park and they're like, oh, Coffee and Chill. And like, I see people in the hats everywhere, all over the city. It's, it's really cool to feel plugged in in that way. And I think that's what you get as being a community builder, is you get to really be connected in your own city. You get to know what's in the new spots, the new venues, what's opening, all of the, the tea. You feel really connected to the people in, in the culture in your city.

Yeah, very cool. I know I saw the thing that you posted recently about going to an event with David Grutman, who's like a huge, you know, figure in Miami, obviously built a big kind of like community and culture. So yeah, just like becoming more integrated into what's actually happening in your city and knowing like the big figures and what's popping up and what's new. It's very, very cool. I, I'm so jealous of my friends that always know like the new spots. Like I have this one friend in Fort Lauderdale, she always knows the new restaurants, and Jaime is always asking me, he's like, ask Alyssa, like, what places we should try. Cuz, and you're like one of those people that just like, you know the tea, you're on the in. So if someone listening wanted to start building wellness events in their community, what is the first piece of advice that you would give them to pick the right concept? Cuz there's like, we're talking about a lot of events. How do they actually find the white space to not just do what everyone else is already doing or be a copycat of an event that already exists?

Totally. And having offer market fit is like the most important thing. I mean, in any industry, as you know, even in coaching, but really not just taking what somebody else is doing and saying, that's working for them, let me do it too. It's like, what isn't there?

Yeah.

What do you crave that isn't existing? And that starts by going to everything. When I first moved here, like I was going to everything. I knew what everyone was doing and then I could see, oh, well there's no one serving this very niche demographic of people, or there's no one doing it this way. So I think you need a felt sense of your market, like by going in person to things. And then from there, I would do like more traditional market research, like do a competitive analysis, talk to people, talk to your network, interview them, do polls, surveys, like really make sure you're putting something out there that's gonna resonate. And you have to do something that not no one's doing, like there's room for all of us, but having a unique angle, a unique message, unique positioning so that you do stand out. In, in many markets, it's very crowded right now. Not all markets, but if you're in Miami, for example, like there's a lot going on. There's a lot of choices and a lot of options for your consumers. So what are you doing, or how are you positioning yourself differently to attract a new buyer that maybe isn't going to a wellness event right now?

Do you think that comes from like what we're talking about before of like the combination of like a couple of interests, or is it just like— could it be something as simple as like, I don't know, just a unique kind of vibe that you bring to a standard experience? Like let's say it's a run club, like how innovative are you really going to get with a run club? But like what makes the run club different? Do you think you can have just like a standard kind of experience and make it unique and fill whitespace with a certain frequency, energy, vibe, like little details that other people don't have? Or do you think it truly has to be like something that doesn't already exist?

I think it's gonna depend on how saturated your market is. And so even if your market isn't saturated yet, it will probably get saturated by you having success. So the more niche and the more unique it is, the better. I have a client who runs a Brazil run club in New York, so it's all Brazilian. So it's like even just the types of people that you're attracting, a certain demographic, that could be your unique angle. With Coffee and Chill, yes, coffee and ice baths, but also the filter of what we're not doing. So we're not drinking, it's a sober community. So you can also think about it that way of like, what are the things that go against our core values? What are the things that we're promoting that we don't do? So that's like another way to kind of carve out your space. And time of day, like we're at 10 AM, we're a morning party. Like it would be a very different vibe if you said we're at 6 PM or at 10 PM. So we've done one after dark event, totally different, like we did it at night. So sometimes it's just the time of day that you're doing it as well. I think there's a lot of ways to get creative, but you need something potent in your messaging. And I You, you were like the queen of messaging and you talk about that all the time. It's the same with events. Like what's that thing that's sticky in your marketing that people are gonna be like, oh, that is for me. Whereas if you're going off just a vibe, it's kind of hard to explain that in your, in your messaging and people aren't gonna know like, oh wow, like I need to go get there.

But in terms of forward-facing marketing, it's gonna be hard to, to just say that. Right.

Like the vibe will keep them coming back, but it's not gonna be what gets them in the door.

Right. Yeah. Very good point. Okay. So for anyone listening who's like, wait, I don't even know what Coffee and Chill is, can you do just like a quick explanation of what the event is? For sure.

We host Sober Coffee and Ice Bath parties every other Sunday, 500 to 1,000 people. And then we do tentpole moments around Art Basel and Formula 1, big Miami cultural moments that are sometimes up to 2,000 people. The goal is to help people get back to in-person connect, meet friends in a sober environment, in a healthy environment. Doesn't mean our whole community is sober, it just means they're open to having a good time without drinking.

And what I was going to say before was, cuz you mentioned something that you got like like having a stand against something that you, that you don't do, right? So for your events, it's like it's in the morning and it's a sober community, so there's never going to be alcohol served. You're not going to partner with brands that are alcoholic in any way. And I think that's such a good kind of anti-brand to have, because when you're trying to build this cult-like following or this cult-like movement, we know that one of the key ingredients to that is actually having common enemy or an anti-brand, if you will. And so like, exactly, really having something strong that you are not for, that you're actually actively against, is really powerful, especially in the case of Coffee and Chill, I think, because there's a lot of— like, Miami does get the reputation of being a party city, and it still is.

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But there's a ton of young entrepreneurs here. There's a ton of people that are really into wellness and they're looking for that gap of like being able to meet people and socialize and have fun but not have to go out and drink or do drugs to do so. So I just wanted to point that out cuz I think that has been so amazing for the brand of Coffee and Chill, like having the strong anti-brand of no alcohol.

Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. And that's like for public-facing marketing and to attract our consumers. But even on the brand side, we have a lot of like other things that we won't accept— things with Red 40, artificial flavors, colors, bad ingredients. And we're always super picky on that side of things. And I think I think that's helped us like elevate and helped us attract better brands, like the dream partners, because we're really picky about like what we let in the doors. And that kind of comes to our core values of like, we actually want to be a health and wellness community, not just like a fake wellness community.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's like the image of like everyone's wearing activewear, right?

Exactly. It's like, no, we actually like do care about what we're serving you, what we're endorsing for you to put in your body.

Yeah, very important. So because Coffee and Chill is a sober event, do you have any like personal specific reason why you decided upon that? Have have you personally always been into wellness, or did you go through like your own journey of coming to that? Where did that come from, your passion for wellness and also just non-alcoholic events?

Yeah, I stopped drinking— it's almost 4 years in May this year, just crazy. Yeah, and I stopped drinking— I wasn't drinking a lot at the time when I stopped drinking. It was just like I didn't feel like it was bettering my life. I didn't feel like it was getting me closer to the goals. I want to do big things, have a big life, and sitting in bed hungover on a Sunday was just not it and not getting me any closer to that and I felt like the friends I was hanging out with at the time was always like, oh, let's get drinks, let's get to go to happy hour. And when I stopped drinking, I realized, oh, like, we're not even really friends.

Like, this isn't—

yeah, these aren't the people that are gonna elevate me. And like, you are who you surround yourself with, of course. So I stopped drinking about 4 years ago, and then I was like, okay, now how do I have fun? Because it's always happy hour, it's always let's go out. And so I just wanted to do fun things without drinking. And Coffee and Chill, if you've been, like, it's very much a day party, it's very much a dance floor, a DJ. Like, you wouldn't know looking in that no one's drinking, right?

You would think that they're all drinking for sure, for sure.

And I feel like I wanted to have that level of fun. Like, just because I don't drink doesn't mean I don't want to dance, doesn't mean I don't want to have a good time. It just means I don't want to do it at 2 AM around people who are spilling drinks on me and who are groping me or whatever. So that was kind of the initial spark of like, let me host all my events. Even before Coffee and Chill were alcohol-free as well. And then the ice bath thing is like, I love cold exposure. I think helps a lot with inflammation and anxiety. Like, for me, those are the specific benefits. So when you put people in an environment with caffeine and the dopamine hit from the cold plunge, it kind of replaces that lubricant of alcohol and like lets people kind of have this challenging experience together of getting in the ice. They're feeling good, they're under the sun, and then it's like, oh, we actually don't need alcohol to have a good time. So that's kind of where it came from.

And the ice baths are weirdly intimate. Like, I feel like it actually does create a bonding experience because it's not something you're doing— like, let's say you're taking some sort of like workout class class or you're doing a yoga event or Pilates or something, yes, you're doing it in a group, but like a lot of that experience is inward and like individual. Whereas with the ice thing, like you're sitting in a circle and you're all going through like the hard kind of experience together and you're face to face with people. And so it does— it's like creates a bonding experience, which I think is really—

yeah, for context for the listeners, it's like almost like a jacuzzi-sized tub. It's like an 8x8 plunge. So you're getting in— up to like 10 friends could fit in there. It's not like the individual one. So I think it makes— it's like a community experience to do that together.

Yeah, yeah, it's very cool. So I want to talk a little bit about your founder journey with Coffee and Chill and just kind of understanding what it took to build that. Like, did you quit your 9-to-5 right away, or did you wait until there was proof of concept? What was your mindset like back in those days when you decided, like, I'm gonna go all in on this idea? Just walk us through a little bit of that.

Yeah, so I think I always knew I'd be a founder. Like, that was embedded in me since I was a little girl. I think there was no question. It was like, how, what, when. It was never if. And so when I had the 9 to 5, I knew that was like a temporary thing. It was like, it was like, whatever, I'll just pay the bills. Just moved to Miami and need this 9 to 5 lasted like just over a year. And then I was like, I need to just do something I actually care about. I just wasn't fulfilled and it wasn't lighting me up. Wasn't lighting my bank account up either, but that's besides the point. Um, and so I quit the 9 to 5. I was like, I'm gonna do freelance things and then start hosting events. And that was kind of the plan. And I started hosting events, immediately knew this is what I meant to do. And this was a different company before Coffee and Chill.

Mm-hmm.

It was called High Vibe. And we were doing wellness, like boutique, upscale luxury events for women, all alcohol-free, very curated, matching activewear, gifting, all the things. And when I started that, I was like, I want to do this. Like, this is what I'm meant to do, 100%. And like, I've been hosting events since I was a little girl, like crazy birthday parties. And like, this has just been in, in me forever.

You just have been a natural event planner. Curator of the vibes.

Yes. Like, this was for— since I was literally 5, there's a pinned post on my Instagram. You guys can go look at it. Um, so cute. So I started hosting events. I was like, yes, this is what I'm meant to do. And then it was like, okay, how do I actually turn this into a business? So there was a lot of trial and error and a lot of challenge and heartache trying to figure out how to get this profitable, because events are very easy to lose money if you don't know what you're doing. Long story short, we finally got them profitable. It became my full-time business. And throughout that first year, year and a half of hosting events, I was doing lots of different things— Pilates, breathwork, boxing, ice baths, all the things you can imagine inside the wellness niche. And I kept seeing this demand for ice baths. Ice bath events were selling out faster. There was more people who wanted them to be involved in them. There was bigger waitlists, all the things. I could charge more for tickets. It was like all these green flags. At that time in Miami, ice baths weren't really a thing. Now I feel like everyone has an ice bath. It's not even special.

But I was going to say it, it's like it was something that you couldn't just like go and do on your own, right? Like not everyone had an ice bath. Like you needed to go somewhere where they were going to facilitate it for you.

Yeah. And the only time then, like, you— the only where, where you could go then, it was anatomy, like going to the gym, like having a membership. But if you wanted to just go do one casually, like there was no setting for that. So I started the ice bath events with my other company, and then I had been following, and my co-founder Eric, my co-founder of Coffee Chill had been following this account, Coffee and Chill, that started in LA. It started on two best friends' patio— ice bath, chest freezer, like converted chest freezer, and an espresso machine that they would like make coffees out of. And it was like 8 friends. And one of their first posts went super viral and it like blew up overnight. It was like 8 friends and then all of a sudden it was like 800 friends. And they, I think, had at the time had no intention of really turning it into a business. It was just something that they did cuz they wanted to see their friends. But they had a really good name, like Coffee and Chill is very trendy. It's very— it had Patches. So Eric and I, long story short, we had mutual friends with them. We got in touch with them and we were like, hey, we'd love to do this in Miami. Like, we feel like the market here would respond really well to it. And they were all over the idea. They were like, sure, let's do it. At the beginning, it was so casual. It was like, here's the logo, good luck. Like, it was not a whole thing of like, we're gonna have this plan and this strategy or anything. It was like, sure, why not? And we started the events in Miami 2024, April. It's been like exactly 2 years now. And the first event was 250 people. We hosted it at Reserve Paddle and it It was insane and it grew so fast in Miami. It, it was wild. Honestly, Eric and I both came in with like event business background. We immediately monetized through sponsors. Like there was no sponsors before that. We really had a, a huge piece in building what the brand is. And I, you know, I was given equity in the whole company and like joined their team to help grow it. And I, I opened up Austin and New York with them and it, it's expanded since, but it just hit in the Miami market so strong. And like, coming in with all of our previous event experience, it just kind of blew up from there.

So where do the original creators of the name stand now? Like, what is that relationship? What does that look like?

Yeah, we have a great relationship. They live in LA, they run the Venice chapter and are super involved.

Yeah. Okay, nice. Yeah, nice. I didn't know that part of the story. So cute. So how did, how did Coffee and Chill go from being kind of, like you said, I know it grew really fast, but from being this conceptual thing that was just happening in Miami to what it is now, because like what it's turned into is something so much bigger than that. Like your events with Formula 1, collaborations with New Balance, working with the Miami Dolphins, NFL, Inter Miami. Like, I mean, it's insane. Yeah. Can you talk about that trajectory of the growth? Because it did happen fast, but like what that looked like and how it felt for you as a co-founder?

Yeah, it's been surreal. I think we've always known it's possible. Like Eric and I had dream partner lists from the beginning and like we always really really, I mean, I know you, you believe in manifestation and these types of things, and we've really always believed like we can take this to any heights that we want. How fast it grew was a roller coaster. It was insane. I think what that looked like is we've stayed really true to our core values. Like I mentioned before with the brands that we bring in, like I just turned down $20K recently from a brand that was like, we'd love to spend $20K, and they had like bad ingredients in their beverage product. And I was like, no thanks. So we just stayed really true to like what we believe in, who we are, bringing in great people on the team. Like everything has been very intentional, and we've never compromised on that. And I think that's what's helped it grow. From a strategy perspective, we've really maintained hype. And at the end of the day, your numbers do matter. And these big brands care about your numbers. They wanna know you're gonna drive revenue. They wanna know you're gonna sell out. They wanna know what to expect. And we have a really, really strong track record. And that came from building hype strategically from event number 1. We sold 250 tickets on event number 1. 2 weeks later we did 350, and then every 2 weeks after It's been $350, $450, $550, $650 until we got to $750 and then we maintained, but we kept selling out and inching up the capacity instead of just being like, sure, let's do 1,000 on event number 2. It was like, keep the FOMO, keep them wanting more, put them on a waitlist, drive— intentionally sell out.

Exactly. Because it did create this thing where it's like, it's almost like an exclusive experience to get a ticket to a coffee and chat because of how some of how fast, like I said, I think it was probably 2024 when I heard about about it. So early-ish days. But yeah, I remember they were like, oh, do you wanna come? And I was like, sure, yeah, let me ask. I was gonna ask Jaime if you wanted to go. A couple hours later I was like, yeah, we'll come. They're like, oh, those tickets are gone.

Yeah. I remember the first time cuz like my other events always sold out too, but it would be like, you know, a few hours, a day, 2 days. Whereas the very first time I really realized what we had created, it was like couple months in. It was in June and we launched in April. And I was in the airport when we were dropping tickets. I was about to get on a flight, and like everything was scheduled, so I didn't really have to do anything, but we dropped the tickets and I was like, let me check. And within like 3 minutes we had sold 500 tickets. And I was like, what is happening? Like, this is so insane. We just rode that wave and kept that momentum going. And I think that served us really, really well. And it's helped us attract these huge players like the Dolphins, Formula One, Inter Miami, things like that.

So let's talk, you alluded to, you know, keeping your values when it comes to sponsorships and what brands you're bringing in and things like that. So I wanna talk about specifically events and, and sponsors, but also venues for anyone who's listening that is thinking about like, okay, I wanna add a community style event to my existing business, or I even just wanna build a business like this, a community-based business. How do you choose? We'll talk about sponsors in a second, but first, how do you choose a venue and what do you look for? Obviously it's gonna be different for what type of event, but like, is there anything in particular that you're looking for when you're looking at venues?

Great question. Venues are everything, so without the venue, you can't host the event, so it's super important to have a great venue. And I first want to make something super clear: if you want to be profitable, you have to get your venue for free. You should not be paying for your venue, and it is 1,000% possible.

That's tea.

If you're hosting like 700 to multiple thousands of people, maybe you pay something, but you pay a heavily, heavily, heavily discounted rate. Like, I've gotten venues who've quoted me $45K down to down to like less than 10, and a lot of the venues completely for free. So that's the first thing.

And that—

let me just ask, because someone listening to this might be thinking, okay, if you have the proof—

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Love you guys, and thanks for supporting Makeshift Happen that you have now with Coffee and Chill, that makes sense because they know that they're going to whatever. But is that possible even when you're starting out? Like, your clients that are building events from the ground, is it possible to truly get a venue for free or nearly free even when you're in early days?

Yes, 100%. It's all sales. It's like everyone has something to sell themselves on, whether that's the vision of where they're going going, or it's their track record of previous experience, or their social following, or their network, or even, you know, if we're starting from zero zero with a client and I'm working with them hands-on and they're like, I have never hosted anything, have no social presence, we'll start with free events. And it's like, let's build up some credibility by showing some numbers, getting some content, and we'll use that to sell the first venue on the paid event. So there's so many ways to go about it, But absolutely, you can get the first venue for free.

Okay, that's, that's honestly a really important tip. Anything else that you look for in venues specifically?

I would say the most important thing is that you feel like this partner is bought in on the partnership. What I found before, I— there was an event early days where I lost $10,000 hosting an event, like in the red on a credit card. It was awful. And the mistake was ignoring venue red flags of one point of contact, no one looped in, slow communication, confusing back and forth. And I And I was like, "Nah, it's gonna be fine. There's no way that this is gonna be a problem." I just, I loved the venue and I had this amazing vision, so I just kept ignoring it. And at the end, that person actually got fired and then no one else knew about what we had planned. And it was days before dropping tickets. I had sponsors already ready to fly in for this event and I was like, "I'm not gonna cancel this. What do I do?" And then I ended up going and renting, a super expensive venue, which put me in the red $10K because I was like, I'm more dedicated to the community. I would rather lose the $10K than let down the community and lose their trust and the credibility of like what I've built with them. But that was a really good learning lesson of like your partner needs to be, your venue partner needs to be bought in. They need to be communicative. They wanna meet in person. They have multiple people looped in operations, marketing. Everyone knows about this.

Yeah.

And having everything in writing in terms of like the physical venue, I would make your like non-negotiable checklist of what you operationally need to host the event. Get on a call first. I never go in person. I just get on a Zoom call, like pitch a concept, pitch a partnership, make sure they check the like non-negotiable boxes. If it all sounds good, go in person and then make sure the vibes check out and that the venue is like gorgeous and it's gonna be great for content and all the things. And then close the deal after the walkthrough.

Yeah. Okay. Good tips. Good tips. Is it possible to have profitable events? Cuz you're big on this. Yes, where you are making $10K or more, because if we're getting the venue comped or nearly free, there's still a lot of other expenses. There's still a lot of overhead when it comes to events. So when you're working with clients and helping them build their event business, what are the things that you're focusing on to make sure that they can have these profitable events?

Yes, first, yes, you can absolutely be profitable. It's like my whole thing, and I feel like we need more people to know that so that you're not in the red or you're not losing money. Like nothing is going to burn you out faster than continuously losing money hosting events. In terms of making yourself profitable, first you need a really strong like business concept of what the community's all about. I talk about niching down a lot and not recreating the experience every single time. I've been there and I was there in the beginning where I was like, I wanna host all sorts of different things. Mm-hmm. And I know my customer, I want them to experience all these amazing things and I wanna give them something new. But in reality, reality, the event is your product. When you're running a business like this, imagine you launched a new product and never use the old products every single month. It's impossible to scale. There are a lot of ways to introduce novelty and hype and keep engagement high, like we do with Coffee and Chill, but there has to be something consistent that you're able to build on. So all of the learnings compound, all your marketing compounds, and you end up not having to redesign the experience, and you can focus on other things.

And well, and that helps build the recognition of people wanting to come back, or having seen a friend go to it and being like, oh, I want to go to that now too. And that would shock if they went.

It was totally different, right? It's like they see the marketing, they're like, after the fact, the recap of the event, they're like, oh my God, I wanted to go to that, that looks amazing, when's the next one? You're like, oh, I'm actually not doing that again. And it's like, so this is a trap that so many people get stuck in.

Yeah. And so getting the shiny object syndrome of like feeling like just because you've done it 5, 10 times that it now needs to be a completely new reinvented experience. Right, exactly.

Customer. So once you have that nailed and you have like a really good cadence of events, how many events you're hosting, you want to nail your ticket pricing. I'm really big on over-delivering I think a lot of people hear me talk about let's make your events profitable and they think we're gonna price gouge our guests. And that's never what I want. Like the guest needs to come and be mind blown at how awesome this is and how valuable the ticket is. So if the ticket is valuable, they're coming back time and time again. Your tickets are gonna sell out, you're gonna be profitable and it's gonna be fine. But it's like you have to price them at the right amount. I like to go with something around 5 times what they're getting. Getting, like the, the value. They get 5 times the value for the ticket price, so it feels super valuable, but you're still making money. And how you do that is you lean on sponsors. So the sponsors are contributing a lot of free things to the event, and then as you grow, your sponsors actually pay to be part of the event too. So now you're getting all the free product and they're paying, and you're getting your venue for free. You're keeping your costs low, your tickets are accurately priced, you have good marketing because you have a consistent experience, and then you're able to profitable.

So cool. Getting to the point of like sponsors, also really cool sponsors like wanting to pay to be at your events because they're so good, is just like— it must be so fun.

Yeah, it's so fun. It's so— it's like the best feeling when they're like, yes, we want to do it. I'm like, yeah, yes, yes.

So what are your best tips for securing epic sponsors? Just like how to approach them, like where do you present the value, especially for someone who's maybe just earlier on and, and wanting to build their events?

Yes, the sponsors care about a few things. First, they care about how many people they're reaching. So the bigger your events are, the easier it is going to be to sell in sponsors. You can get gifted sponsors from event number one. Like, you don't need a lot of people. You can have them contribute product, gift bag items, food, beverages. Like, honestly, anything can be sponsored. But if you want them to pay, they are going to care a little bit about how many people they're actually reaching. They also care about audience fit. So is it actually aligned? The ideal scenario is this is a win-win. Like, I don't want to bully any sponsor into a partnership, so So I wanna make sure that their clientele is my clientele and vice versa. And that way they really want access to the people that I can bring them. They care about content. So having great content on social media.

Okay.

Both Instagram Reels, like iPhone style content creator style content, and then also professional photos. They care a lot about that. Your reach on social media definitely can be a selling point. Like if you're tagging them in a lot of deliverables, things like that, they care about that. And then data generation. So if they're at the event and they want you want to collect emails from your guests. I love doing things like that where it's like, scan this QR code, enter to win. They opt into the brand.

Oh nice.

They gather all of those emails and then there's like some huge prize or like raffle and giveaway. That's like a really fun thing.

Yeah, yeah. So they just get lots of like opt-ins.

Exactly.

They get lots of contacts.

Yeah. So there's so many things and you have to figure out what the brand really cares about and then you sell them on those things. So every brand has different values and different goals.

You mentioned before saying no recently to a sponsor because of ingredients that weren't in it that you were like, this just isn't aligned with our mission and values of like what we do. How do you know when to say no to a sponsor, especially if you like want them or want the money, right?

Wait, shoot. Well, I think at first, like a mindset thing, like an abundant mindset. This is not the last check I'm going to be offered, and there's more than enough money coming from places that I want money from. So I think it's just knowing that this isn't the last opportunity for you. And I always say, when you say no to one something, more yeses and things you wanna say yes to come to you and more doors open. So I'm really big on that. I think when I work with my clients, I tell them to make a list of like their core values in the beginning. What are the things we're not gonna be negotiable on? If you don't have those defined, it's really easy to blur the lines. Like if I didn't have the list of things that we always say no to, it'd be easy to be like, well, it was $20K, maybe I should say yes. Yeah. So I think having that list of like, these are things we stand by and these are things that we accept and things we don't accept. And then staying true to it and getting everyone on your team has to be on the same page with that too.

Yeah. And can you just riff on like the consequence of not having like strong boundaries in terms of saying yes to sponsors that maybe aren't a perfect fit? Like, why is that so important?

And I think it's, it's hard to see that in the beginning too because you might be like, oh well, I'm brand new, like no one will even notice. But then again, slippery slope. I think part of it is guest experience. Like, you want the guest experience to be awesome. That's always number one, more than how much money you're making or anything else. It's like, is the guest experience awesome. If you start being flexible on these values and like bringing in random brands, and then all of a sudden it kind of feels commercial, it does, it's like, why is this brand here? It doesn't really make sense. Yeah. So I think it sacrifices guest experience. I also think depending on your dream list of partners, like those partners care about what kind of other brands they're gonna be next to. So if I want, let's say, yeah, that's true. You know, let's say I want Symbiotica and I want them to do a smoothie bar, like something really epic, they are not going to want to be next to a product with Red 40, a product that's low quality, that speaks to entirely different demographic and consumer, right? So those brands, I think, really care about the quality of the people they're next to.

Yeah, the—

I think that's really important.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So true. Coaching, we got to talk about that because you now run multiple businesses. You don't just have Coffee and Chill, but you also have Community Master My first question with this is, how are you staying organized? Okay, because Coffee and Chill, as we've described, is a beast of its own at this point. It's happening every other weekend, massive events in Miami, tons of people, major collaborators and sponsors. It's a big business. And now you have the coaching side of things where you are helping people actually do this in their own communities and build these events. How are you staying organized and sane with juggling like everything that's on your plate?

You should see my calendar.

Um, we'll talk about it. We'll talk about the time blocking.

That is literally my answer. It's time blocking. Everything is time blocked. Like if you are not time blocking, it's simply just not happening or you're not getting the most outta your days. I could not live without time blocking or at least like manage two businesses. There's just no way. So I time block on Sundays for the next 7 days. I don't do it night before because I feel like then it's like easy to just fill in the gaps, stay in admin, stay on the hamster wheel.

Yeah.

Like if you're doing it the night before on Sunday night just for Monday, it's like like by Monday night you're just planning Tuesday and then it's just like nothing's really happening. Whereas if you do it for the week, you can see the whole week what's getting moved forward. At this point, like there's so many standing meetings, it's like sliding in the time blocks. I have certain time blocks that are like, this is when Coffee and Chill work is allowed to happen. This is when Coffee and Chill meetings are allowed to happen. This is when one-to-one client calls are allowed to happen. And like my, you know, my assistant also knows that. So like things aren't getting scheduled build on the wrong time blocks. It honestly sounds rigid, and it is a bit rigid, but for me it allows me to have balance. It allows me to book in the workouts and have date night and see my friends. And I'm part of Founders Club, and tonight we're going to like the Founders Club mastermind, and like we do that once a month. And like, that doesn't happen unless I plan it in, in advance. Yeah, so that is the only way.

Okay, how often are you sliding a time block from one day to to the next.

Very rarely, honestly. Oh my God, Lucy, I just stay. If I don't make us all feel like shit, I've been doing this a long time and it takes practice. Like, this is also why I like time blocking, because if you start—

you're really good at like staying— like, you respect the time block.

Like, yeah. But I also think that if you do this over and over, you start to learn how much time things actually take you, which is why I like time blocking. Because, okay, let's say you have to build a deck or like a presentation, and you say, okay, that's gonna take me an hour. And then you actually do it and you're like, okay, it takes me 4 hours. Mm-hmm. Now I know that and like you're more realistic with what's gonna happen in your week. So the more you do this, and literally I've been doing this for years, so now I know how long things actually take me. Mm-hmm. You get more accurate and you get more realistic about what's possible in your week. And if I go over like times and like I don't get everything done, I honestly usually just stay up late and just do it after. So, you know, we just make up for it at 10. Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah. I think that was a big thing for me too when I started time blocking. Was learning how to be more realistic with the amount of time. And I also think that's helpful because when you're just doing a to-do list, you can put so many things on a to-do list because there's no time period attached to it. It's not like 90 minutes to like, yeah, write this email sequence. It's just like email sequence and then like 85 other tasks on the to-do list. So of course you kind of feel awful at the end of the day when you're like, oh my gosh, there's so much to do, right? I barely cracked the surface. On this. So I do think that's key, but I probably need to— timed. Yes, it needs to be timed appropriately. I have to leave a little bit of buffer between things because I do tend to like go over, and then it just pisses me off if I'm like consistently going over, and you know, the last task of the day then just gets eaten.

That's fair, that's fair. On days where you're just doing like work projects, I think even more important to have little buffers because you don't know what's— how the project's going to go.

It's a little bit easier because it's more more like finite, you know. But when it's creative work, sometimes it is a little bit more unexpected how much it's going to take.

I started doing No Meeting Wednesdays, and that's been really nice of like, this is my deep work time, or like, you know, this is when we had our podcast today. It's like there's space for that. And to have real deep work, like, you can't be like meeting, deep work, meeting, deep work. Like, no, that's just never gonna happen.

Yeah, I know, the task switching of—

it's so hard.

Do also theme your days? Cuz you mentioned there's certain times where it's like, okay, this, this time of day is where we do coffee and chill stuff, and then this time of day is where we do team, so that you can stay organized. But to that point of not going from deeply creative work to super like analytical, like strategic work, are you also theming your days at all aside from the, the no-call Wednesday?

A little bit. So I have two half days that are just like coffee and chill days, like half the day is coffee and chill. Honestly, we've gotten to a point with so many events that it's very systemized and we have a lot of things in place that it's not taking me as much time as it did in the beginning. I have content days on Friday, so like that's when I'm editing and scheduling, and like that has been kind of a new thing I've implemented that I really like. Otherwise, honestly, Monday, Tuesday, I'm on 8 hours of back-to-back calls.

So that is the day, Lucy. I know when you were saying like no-call Wednesdays, I'm like, I have no-call Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Honestly though, I love that for you. That's the goal. Like I That's what I'm moving towards because I wanna work on the business, not just in the business. And like some of it is managing the team, which is great, and that's like getting me there. But it's, I'm like trying to weed out the calls that aren't necessary. Like can the hour-long calls be 30 minutes? Can the 30-minute calls be 15 minutes? Like, do you actually need a call for this?

Yeah. Or can someone else on the team be on the call and then just relay something that's important to you if you need to know it? Exactly. As the founder to not have to be on every call. But yeah, it's a, that's a lot. I know you are back to back. You, when you post your screenshots, I'm like, damn, she's cooking over there. She's, you know, she's grinding.

I think when you love what you do, like, there's nothing else I'd rather be doing, honestly. And I think it takes that level of work, especially if you're doing multiple things and like you really want to scale. Like, I'm in scale mode, so it's like you got to grind. There— it is a grind. I feel like social media makes it sound like, oh, I'm just going to like be a founder and it's going to be like so fun and I'm going to go on vacation and make millions of dollars. And I'm like, that's literally not how it goes.

No, we're, we're busy. We're very busy. Yeah. What is the kind of dynamic like with you and your partner now that the business is bigger and he's on board? Like, can you talk about that a little bit? Just being a female founder and being a breadwinner and then having, you know, the support of actually your partner working in the business with you. Yeah.

So just for everyone listening, Coffee and Chill Life have a co-founder, Eric, who's not my romantic partner, just my business partner. And then Daniel, my boyfriend and business partner on the coaching business. It's been amazing. We have really complimentary skill sets, and I wouldn't say I get into business with your romantic partner if you are just doing it out of convenience, like, oh, this would be easier, it's nice to keep it in the family, like, for sure. But if you don't actually have the right skill sets to support each other in the business, it's not going to work. We're very different. He's very analytical, he brings that masculine energy, he runs sales and operations, and I run coaching, content, client-facing things and projects and creativity and like vision setting for where where we're headed and it's the best combination of skill sets. So I think it's worked really well. We talk about work a lot and like, I think we, we try to have like, this morning we did a walk of like a no work talk walk. Like we're not talking about work. It was 7:00 AM. I'm like, we're not just going straight into talking about work. And I think those boundaries are important. We also have like a standing date night every week, same time, non-negotiable. We will do date night. And so that time is like for us and not for the business. So I think Having those boundaries is really, really key.

Yeah. What was it like for him coming into the business and working with you? Like, can you speak to the dynamic of like training him on like—

so with the coaching business, we really founded it from the ground up together. Like, I don't think I would have started it at that time without him because I knew it was going to be a lot of backend work and I just didn't have the capacity with also running the events. So we really kind of created it together in in terms of— obviously I built the coaching part of it, but like the back end and like launching it, like he was involved from day one. He's also been like— we've been together 7 and a half years, like he's been at the first event, he's volunteered at every event, he's dumped the ice in the ice baths and cleaned up and been there at 6 AM and yeah, all the things. So I think he's like really seen the journey and is more invested in it than anyone. And it's been really exciting. It's cool to build something like we— like it's like our child, like we created this thing and then we're just so invested in where it's headed. So it's been awesome, but not without its challenges for sure. Like, you know, there's challenges.

I know I've been back and forth in my mind about working with your romantic partner. Yeah, because I initially was like, I don't want to do that. I think I want to keep it separate so that we have our own lives and interests and we don't, you know, revert to just all of our conversations being about work. But recently I've been like, it's kind of lonely being in— also because I don't have a co-founder. So it's kind of lonely having that experience and like the person that you love the most and is the closest to you like isn't seeing all the things that you're doing on a— like they don't actually know the ins and outs. Of course we talk and like I tell him some things, but it's impossible to actually know what's going into a business when you're not working on it day to day. And so I wanted to ask you that selfishly also because I've been like, I don't know, maybe I'm changing my mind on that.

Yeah, I feel like especially if you've been in like a long-term committed relationship. Like, also for us, one thing I think that's been nice is he doesn't want to be in the spotlight. He doesn't want to be the face of the brand. And like, I love that, and that's just naturally what makes sense for this business. But he's also really okay with that. And I think if there's any conflict there, that would pose a really big challenge of like, if you brought in a co-founder and then they're like, oh, I want to be the face of the brand, like, you have to make sure you're really clear on your roles, your responsibilities, staying in your lane, and like having trust for them to execute. Like, he runs the ads and like, I trust him. Like, my friends will be like, what are your ad numbers? And I'm like, no, I gotta check. Like, you know, like, it's like Daniel. Exactly. But he's not telling me what to post on social media. He's not telling me what to say on these podcasts. Like, it's very much we trust each other, stay in our lanes, and then we're more productive and the business thrives.

I think that's a really big key point that you mentioned of like, you really do— if you're going to work with your romantic partner, you really do have to let them own their portion of the business. Yes. And not try to be like micromanaging what they're doing and really let go of like the control and having the trust there of like, I definitely— and the complementary skill sets help with that because then you're like, I actually do trust that they're better than that, they're better at that than me. Totally. And so of course, like, I don't need to be in the weeds of the ads because I don't know what's going on with that, but he does. And I think if it's not like that, it— that's probably where it creates tension.

And honestly, in every— in any business this. Like, even on Coffee and Chill, like, Eric and I have such independent roles and responsibilities. Like, I don't even think he has Instagram on his phone. He doesn't know what we're posting. Like, which is great. He's like full trust. And then vice versa, he's doing operations, logistics, setting a sitemap, and like full trust. I'm like, you got it. So I think just to even operate at full productivity and efficiency, it's like so, so important that you just can stick to your thing and execute it well.

Yeah, everyone's in their zone of genius, and there's full trust there that people are operating at like the high highest capacity and what they're in charge of and owning the outcomes of their portion of like what they're responsible for. Okay, I wanted to close with a little rapid fire. I'm calling it Plunge or Pass. I like that, very cute, very cute. And I actually came up with that, it was not ChatGPT, so it was my brain. So Plunge or Pass, basically smash or pass, but plunge obviously because of the cold plunges. So we're just going to do like wellness trends. So plunge is obviously you do it or you love it, pass is like no thanks. Not for me. You ready?

Yep, we're ready.

All right, red light mask.

Pass, I guess. Okay, I have one and I don't use it, so that's all you need to know.

Okay, okay, there you go. Vibration plate. Pass. A gua sha.

I like want to plunge, but like also have them. Do I use it consistently? No.

Like, same.

Yeah, yeah, I'm just—

I have like 5 of them. Do I do it? No.

Exactly. I'm not a 20-step skincare kind of girl.

What about peptides? It's all the rage right now.

It is all the rage. Pass for now, just cuz I haven't done them. I think from what I know about them, go to a doctor, not a med spa, and like be very careful and really do your research.

Yeah.

Ice rolling, plunge, love. Easy.

Fits with the vibe of— she loves the ice.

Anything ice snatches you.

Yes. Okay, mouth tape.

Pass. I think I do believe in it. I think the science is there. Can I stand it? Absolutely not. It's, it's so uncomfortable. I've tried it. It's It's like, I can't sleep like that.

Same, same. I have the cute Skinny Confidential pink ones and they're just there on my desk, never using them.

It's like, I want to love all these things, but some of them I'm just like, that's just not realistic.

I know. What about standing desk and like walking pad?

Plunge. Yes. Yes. So, so important. Even if you just stand 8 hours of calls. Yeah. I've been like really getting better at standing and walking during my day and it's game changer.

Yeah. Yes. Okay. Weighted vests. Pass. Pass. Same.

I like the ankle weights. I do those. Same.

Yeah, same. I do ankle weights on my walks. Okay, I'll do that. Natural deodorant.

How natural are we talking? Aluminum-free plunge. Other ones that don't work— the one that's just like the salt rock?

No, hard pass. I'm with you, I'm with you. Uh, okay, butt sunning.

I don't even know what that is. Yes you do. Like literally just like when people do the Pyrenees. Yeah, no, no, no, we put your butthole in the sun. Like, I love that.

You're not doing that on your, on your balcony?

No.

All of Miami to see you.

I feel like I have the perfect balcony for that, but no, you do have the perfect balcony for that.

Okay, last one: bricking your phone. Do you have a brick?

I need to get a brick. I need to get one.

I just got one. That's why I wanted to ask.

Give me the tea. How is it?

Good. It is good. It is good. I think what's— what I like the most about it is that you can set automatic bricks. Okay, so you can schedule bricks. So if you know, like, at 9:00 PM I want to shut shut off. Like, I have a wind-down brick schedule. Okay. And so I don't have to like think, oh, let me brick myself. It just automatically would do it. So if you want to do it for certain hours in the morning or in the evening, it'll just block your apps from 9 PM onwards or whatever. And that is really nice because if you don't remember to brick yourself, then it kind of defeats the purpose. But right, the convenient thing is you can brick yourself from anywhere. You don't need the device. So if I'm out and I'm like, I really want to be present right now, today, this podcast, whatever, I don't want to be looking at Instagram or socials, or I brick myself from Telegram because I'm constantly looking at client messages. Yeah, I can just go right now on my phone and press brick, and then I won't be able to undo it until I get home because I need the actual—

wow—

physical thing to unbrick myself.

Yeah, I think I need one. I think you've convinced me. I keep seeing the ads everywhere and I'm like, I know, I know I need one.

I've seen so many influencers talk about it. I was seeing the ads and then one of my clients Mom's got one. Okay. And she told us about it in the mastermind. She was like, you guys need a brick. And I was like, fuck it. Okay, I'm getting one.

Okay. I feel like this is my last push. We're gonna, we're gonna be a brick girl.

She's gonna be a brick girl. Okay. So we're plunging the bricking of your phone.

Yes.

That's all.

Thank you so much for coming on the show, Lucy. This is so much fun.

I loved it. Thank you.

Can you let everyone know where they can find you and if they wanna build communities, what is the best way to get in touch with you to learn?

Yes. You can find me on Instagram at Lucilia Nellis, L-U-C-E-L-I-A N-E-L-L-I-S. Es. Coffee and Chill Miami on Instagram if you want to come to an event, and communitybuildingcollective.com if you want to work together to build and scale your community events business.

And we will link everything in the show notes so that everyone can find you and connect with you. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. If you guys enjoyed this episode and you know someone who would love this conversation, copy the link, send it to them in a message, let them know you were thinking of them. Or as always, take a screenshot, share to your Instagram stories, and tag Lucy and I. And we'll see you guys next week.

Amazing.

Bye! If you loved this episode, make sure to check out the show notes where I've linked a few similar episodes I know you're also going to love.

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